Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Knowledge is Power

If knowledge is power, no wonder we are in a powerless position:It appears that the leaders & members (past, present and future) of our House Intelligence committee can not tell a Sunni from a Shi'ite. But then, neither does the President or his advisors or other high ranking personnel. No wonder we are in such a predicament in Iraq, in the Middle East as a whole. Our leaders are ingnorant of the most basic information necessary to deal with the situation. Not knowing that Al Qaeda is Sunni and Hezbollah is Shi'a puts the US at a very great disadvantage. to say the least.And, this president has proved that he surrounds himself with "yes people" and does not take advise (witness his refusal to take any of the recommendations from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group report issued last week). That He relies on Condi Rice, a Soviet expert, when the global issues are centered on the MidEast, also puts into question his judgement. That Condi Rice does not have a handle on Afghanistan, when many scholars link the Soviet-Afghani ten year war as a prime reason for the fall of sovietism is also telling.

As I tell my students you need to have facts to support your opinions, otherwise opinions are no more than hot air, and it will be hard to convince (or persuade) people unless you are relying on blind faith.

If knowledge is power, we are being led by morons, albeit religious ones!

Dr.JAM is a professor of Political Science and Women's Studies at Marist College, Poughkeepsie NY. Her main focus is teaching students to be critical thinkers and active citizens. She worked in both the Koch and Cuomo administrations before returning to academia. She teaches Modern Political Thought, Contemporary Ideologies, Feminist Political Thought, American National Government, Political Ideas and Issues, Political and Social Movements, among other courses.
She writes a regular column (Walk the Talk) in InsideOut (tm). She has written many articles and books including The Historical Dictionary of the Lesbian Liberation Movement: Still the Rage (Rowman Littlefield, 2003). An active citizen, she served on the boards of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater (where she once was cook); The Grace Smith House,currently she serves on the (executive) boards of the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at ValKill and the Ulster County Democratic Women. $>